It seems that every year now the our politicians scheme to work while the rest of celebrate our joy in the birth of Jesus Christ. Here is how CNN, the first of the blatantly Liberal Democrat cable news networks, puts it.

Mimicking college students everywhere, Congress is waiting until the end of the term to get things done.

Lawmakers have crammed a year’s worth into two massive tax and spending bills they are expected — but not guaranteed — to pass later this week. Released in the middle of the night Tuesday, the measures detail how the federal government will spend $1.1 trillion on everything from national parks to NASA to veterans’ health. They also dictate new policy for cybersecurity, oil exports and suspend some Obamacare taxes. (continued here)

In fact, the going has been so smooth for our new Speaker that he is getting his bills passed with so little opposition he is having trouble delaying them to a time when almost no one is noticing.

Democratic leaders are unanimous in declaring a complete victory over House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and his close allies, who wrote the $1.1 trillion omnibus budget without asking House conservatives for any input — or even for some public objections to help their closed-door negotiations.

The Democrats’ victory, and Republican Ryan’s defeat, was garishly displayed when his omnibus got more Democratic votes in the House and in the Senate than it got Republican votes.

“I said I would not accept a lot of [conservative] ideological riders that were attached to a big budget deal,” President Barack Obama said Friday, at his end-of-year press conference. “And because of some terrific negotiations by the Democrats up on Capitol Hill and I think some pretty good work by our legislative staff here… it was a good win,” he said. “We met our goals,” he said. (continued here)

Think about the sheer stupidity this headline describes: Congress Votes To Fund Nearly 300,000 Visas For Muslim Migrants In One Year. Will you find anything in the Liberal news media about this provision in that 2,000 page bill that Congress presented to us at the last minute? Yet it is there. Even though we are heading for an obvious crash, our glorious leaders still have us on auto pilot. Spending is through the roof. Our foreign policy is a wreck. We don’t even protect our borders. Even with a majority in both houses, we have too many RINOs in the Republican Party, too many RINOs who care more about pleasing fat cat donors than they do about the welfare of our country.

Is the Virginia Commonwealth different? Time will tell. Consider this email I got from Delegate Rob Bell.

Dear friend:

Just in time for Christmas, Governor McAuliffe announced his $109 billion budget, which includes a wish list of $3 billion in new initiatives. Some of his proposals, like cuts in the corporate tax rate, are clearly intended to win conservative support.

But look deeper and McAuliffe’s real plan becomes clear. To pay for these proposals, McAuliffe endorses the Obamacare Medicaid expansion and imposes new taxes on hospitals (that would ultimately be passed on to patients).

This is fiscally reckless. Since 1985, Medicaid spending has increased by 2068% and has grown from 5% of the general fund (state) budget to more than 22%. (See the full chart, here.) Just since 2004, state Medicaid spending has grown from $1.8 billion to a projected $4.46 billion in 2018. This growth is clearly unsustainable, and McAuliffe’s proposed expansion would add hundreds of thousands more Virginians to the Medicaid rolls. Such expansion will only make it that much harder to address Medicaid’s runaway growth.

McAuliffe has stated that the only way to pay for his budget is to expand Medicaid. The House has repeatedly rejected this approach. As the budget process moves forward, I hope you will support a more fiscally responsible budget that addresses Virginia’s true needs without raising taxes or mortgaging our future.

If you would like to share your thoughts with the Governor, you can contact him here. Please also e-mail me any thoughts you have.

I’m appalled at the budget that passed, even more so now with your pointing out it funds 300,000 visas for Muslim. I had high hopes for Speaker Ryan as I thought his practicality and financial starts would outweigh the near unstoppable influence of special interests and entrenched corruption. This is not a goo start at all.

Very true Tom about our education and news media failing us. It’s funny too that you mention the tie between being socially and fiscally conservative as I just read an in depth article on the this the other day and it completely made sense to me. I’ll check out your post now as well.

Comments are closed in that oder post so I’ll just mention that it offers a good and thorough examinations on the meanings of social and fiscal conservativism. I would only argue that it’s possible to be successful at implementing fiscally conservative policies without socially conservative ones, but it would require a more Libertarian approach where the govt is not involved in funding or advocating any type of social behavior. This is impossible in today’s society though.

Why would the Libertarian approach be impossible in today’s society? The problem is one of providing an ethical basis for one’s political beliefs. The Libertarian does not credit God for giving us our God-given rights. Thus, when the Liberal Democrat weeps about the poor, the sick, the old, the children who need an education, and so forth he has no real answer. He cannot look the Liberal Democrat straight in the eye and accuse him of crocodile tears. He cannot condemn him for violating his oath of office and trying to buy votes. He cannot point to the Bible and observe the sinfulness of man, that we cannot trust any man with the power to redistribute the wealth. He cannot say that true charity must come from love, that love is a personal act, not a function of government.

Instead, the Libertarian can only complain that the Liberal Democrat has no right to take his property, and how will that Liberal Democrat reply? With one word. “Selfish”

Maybe not impossible but the size, scope, power and influence of our government, of most (all?) Western societies actually, is so enormous that taming it down to what our Founders envisioned would be so tumultuous it would probably trigger another civil war. I’m not saying we shouldn’t do what we can but just looking at reality.

You do make some good points on Libertarians needing the trueness of God to back up their stances. As a believer myself I see how this all connects but I don’t necessarily think you have to be one to make the case that limited government is best.

Indeed “selfish” seems to be about the only word Democrats have in their arsenal to describe Republicans. Oops, forgot about “uncaring.” too.

Civil War? Possible, but it took a hundred years to create this mess. I suspect it will take that long to undo it, at least if events give us any choice in the matter.

As things stand now, we risk seeing our society unravel. We no longer have the money to pay for the government the big spenders demand. Yet still they demand more. Where such has happened in the past — when the mobs demanded more and more — the governments of those societies collapsed, and a tyrant assumed control.

Could we be at the edge of such a precipice? Is our society about to collapse into tyranny? I am afraid so. I just don’t know how close we are to the edge, and I don’t know if it is still possible to turn back.

“I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.” Ronald Reagan.